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[Rufus]

Nope, you have to decide.

Spoiler

Loghain is a full replacement, though. He'll likely be fully upgraded in the Sword and Shield path by the time you get him anyway. He also comes with the Champion specialization and I think you can teach him another one as well, though you might not have enough points to take full advantage of that. As for how things can work out in detail: http://dragonage.wikia.com/wiki/The_Landsmeet Scroll down to Results

 

[Jedeye Sniv]

Spoiler

I heard there was a secret companion in the game. Without ruining it, is it something I will come across in time or by chance? If it's by chance I might spoil it for myself because I hate missing things like that in games

:lol She's not your mum, dude.

Nope, but she does suck my dick. Give and take my man, give and take.

 

[Stumpokapow]

Can you finish the game with absolutely no companions? Is that possible?

You can skip Dog. You can skip Leliana. You can get rid of Morrigan, and possibly skip her to begin with. Don't do the quest for Shale. Kill Zevran. Leave Sten locked up. I think you can kill Wynne or possibly lose her during Urn of Sacred Ashes.

So that leaves you, Oghren, and Alistair.

Spoiler

Or the Secret Companion; can you engineer the Landsmeet in a way that you lose Alistair but don't get the secret character?

Can you say no to Oghren?

 

[freddy]

Can you finish the game with absolutely no companions? Is that possible?

You can skip Dog. You can skip Leliana. You can get rid of Morrigan, and possibly skip her to begin with. Don't do the quest for Shale. Kill Zevran. Leave Sten locked up. I think you can kill Wynne or possibly lose her during Urn of Sacred Ashes.

So that leaves you, Oghren, and Alistair.

Spoiler

Or the Secret Companion; can you engineer the Landsmeet in a way that you lose Alistair but don't get the secret character?

Can you say no to Oghren?

Spoiler

You can ask Ohgren to leave is all I know. The only ones I couldn't get to leave after the final battle by asking were Alistair and Wynne, there were just no dialogue options to do so. You can always leave all your party members at camp but you'd almost have to cheat get through the game that way. Not sure about the rest of your questions

 

[Rufus]

Can you finish the game with absolutely no companions? Is that possible?

Yes, even as a two-handed warrior, it seems. (On nightmare difficulty too, if I remember correctly. So insane. :lol Other Option: Arcane Warrior)
As for actually leaving all companions behind/turning them down/killing them instead of leaving them at camp; no. I think Alistair sticks around no matter what until the Landsmeet and afterwards you'll be stuck with his replacement, too. No way to avoid that.
Oghren I really don't know about. He's a must in the Deep Roads once you reach the final section there and after that (or when he first asks to join you, not sure) it's at least alluded to that he might stay in Orzammar, but I don't know if you can actually turn him down.

 

[Cep]

Can you finish the game with absolutely no companions? Is that possible?

You can skip Dog. You can skip Leliana. You can get rid of Morrigan, and possibly skip her to begin with. Don't do the quest for Shale. Kill Zevran. Leave Sten locked up. I think you can kill Wynne or possibly lose her during Urn of Sacred Ashes.

So that leaves you, Oghren, and Alistair.

Spoiler

Or the Secret Companion; can you engineer the Landsmeet in a way that you lose Alistair but don't get the secret character?

Can you say no to Oghren?

You can get rid of Oghren.

No matter what you do, you will always have Allister

Spoiler

or The secret character

 

[Rufus]

You can get rid of Oghren.

How?

 

[tokkun]

You can get rid of Oghren.

No matter what you do, you will always have Allister

My friend told me that Allister turned on him at the Urn of Sacred Ashes.

 

[Cep]

How?

Spoiler

Piss him off by getting enough disapproval. At camp, he will initiate a fight and you can intimidate, kill or beat him into submission. You can also ask him to take a hike

My friend told me that Allister turned on him at the Urn of Sacred Ashes.

Your friend was mistaken, Allister will not leave, if you do not have enough friendship/cunning/persuade you will take a massive hit to approval I think.

 

[Kyoufu]

Just came in here to say that I haven't enjoyed an RPG like this since...well, it has been a while!

Really really surprised how much I am enjoying this game. I hope the RtO dlc comes out soon.

 

[MechaX]

Just got 3/4ths of the way through my second playthrough with a female elf mage on Hard Mode. Compared to my first time through the game with my rogue, I'm having a much easier time despite the higher difficulty. Although, that could be due to me actually knowing what in the hell I'm doing, mages being overpowered, or both. My team of my mage, Morrigan, Leliana as an archer/ranger, and Alistar as the tank/decoy utterly destroyed a lot of the encounters thus far (that I found quite frustrating with my previous rogue). I'm also glad that I decided to skip on Arcane Warrior, mostly because I finally accepted that I just found the warrior set-up to be tremendously boring. Instead, I went with a Blood Mage/Spirit Healer approach, even though most enemies die before I can even use blood magic as a backup.

I definitely have to give DA one thing; it has finally encouraged me to play the older fantasy WRPGs, as this game made me appreciate the medieval setting. Now the only question is which PC WRPG should I start off with (Baldur's Gate 1 or 2, Planescape, Neverwinter Nights, etc, etc).

 

[Dennis]

Yes indeed, mages are really overpowered compared to all the other classes.

The sequence you listed the WRPGs in seems fine. Be aware that you can get High-Res patches for many of these games - if you care about graphics.

 

[Fitz]

Yes indeed, mages are really overpowered compared to all the other classes.

This, playing Arcane Warrior/Blood mage kind of ruined the gameplay for me, it turned it into a chore really.

Spoiler

Even fighting Ser Cauthrien, supposedly one of the hardest fights was a joke.

I did finish the game recently though, after getting past the tedium of combat and the ending really made up for it, some great story telling I think, I had a pretty heavy heart all day.

Spoiler

In my ending, everything was all well and good, Alistair marrying Anora, people happy etc etc, however I was dead, and Leliana spent the rest of her time mourning me until her time came to meet me. I feel strongly about the relationship between my character and Leliana as I spent a lot of time making sure it worked out (due to a bug that was patched just after I got things working). It also reminded me of the vision Elrond shows Arwen, in which she lives whilst Aragorn has died.

Shit, just thinking about it gets me choked up.

 

[Dennis]

At some points I had my Blood Mage character, Morrigan and Wynne in the party at the same time and yeah - total cakewalk. Of course you can raise the difficulty setting if you like.

 

[Basileus777]

Spoiler

You can ask Ohgren to leave is all I know. The only ones I couldn't get to leave after the final battle by asking were Alistair and Wynne, there were just no dialogue options to do so. You can always leave all your party members at camp but you'd almost have to cheat get through the game that way. Not sure about the rest of your questions

You wouldn't have to cheat. There are even people who have soloed on nightmare mode.

 

[freddy]

You wouldn't have to cheat. There are even people who have soloed on nightmare mode.

Cretins, one and all.

Spoiler

Yes, I'm jealous

 

[Sriffat]

stuck. I go to the forest but the Large Tree needs something that the hermit has. What does the Hermit have and where do I pick it up? Do I need to kill him?

 

[Fitz]

stuck. I go to the forest but the Large Tree needs something that the hermit has. What does the Hermit have and where do I pick it up? Do I need to kill him?

Spoiler

The tree asked you to get his acorn back from the hermit, you can either trade one of many items for it, scarf, book etc. OR you can interact with the tree stump at his camp and get the hermit to attack you and take the acorn that way.

 

[Sriffat]

Spoiler

The tree asked you to get his acorn back from the hermit, you can either trade one of many items for it, scarf, book etc. OR you can interact with the tree stump at his camp and get the hermit to attack you and take the acorn that way.

got it! thanks

 

[Cep]

Harrowmont -> Ronald Reagan
Bhelen -> Hugo Chavez

Definitely the best analogues.

 

[Sriffat]

Spoiler

The tree asked you to get his acorn back from the hermit, you can either trade one of many items for it, scarf, book etc. OR you can interact with the tree stump at his camp and get the hermit to attack you and take the acorn that way.

Spoiler

I still have the acorn with me. When I approach the Grand Oak tree it says "you have not yet left the forest again"? I thought I was supposed to give him the acorn which I still carry. What do I do ??

 

[Rufus]

Give it to him. Did you look for an appropriate dialogue option?

 

[Shawsie64]

Just completed it after a break for a few months =/ Absolutely loved it! cant wait for the DLC

Whats the go with mods, custom campaings ect? Iv been avoiding this thread until I completed the game..

 

[Ventrue]

Whats the go with mods, custom campaings ect? Iv been avoiding this thread until I completed the game..

There are some tweak mods that people like, but it's too early for much in the way of content mods.

 

[Alej]

So, i'm at my third playtrough (already 180 hours of gaming) on PS3, just before the dungeon for the sacred urn, (im level 12). I'm having a hard time playing on Nightmare diffculty, in fact even Hard is... Hard. But i'm enjoying to die! (Oh yeah... no, NO... nono the little robot!)

My new challenge is to roleplay the game only with tactics (gambits FTW! and just 6 slots by character, one sustained and 5 actives, or 7 if the sustained request a desactivation) for my other characters, with only one specialization per character (the second just for the attribute gains), with the points divised in three attributes by level (so for example one point in strenght, one point in magic, one point in dexterity). And for the mages, just one area of talents (i have to choose between entropy and spirit or creation lines, difficult choice), and no item at all (no health poultice, except sometimes for my main character).
But it is for the role play, having more slot of tactics for my IAs than for my main feels gamey...

So, pray for me and my characters (massive armor are a big no for the moment ^^), furthermore i have made a warrior elf... archer.... templar... OMG!

I'm using Alistair, Morrigan and Zevran right now with the tactics set like that:

Alistair:
Self, Any > Activate Shield Defense
Self, surrounded by 2 enemies > Taunt
Self, attacked by melee > Shield Pummel
Enemy, Elite or Superior > Cleanse Area
Enemy, nearest visible > Shield Bash

Morrigan:
Self, Any > Activate Rock Armor
Enemy, versus at least 2 > Cone of cold
Enemy, versus at least 2 > Flame Blast
Enemy, versus at least 2 > Shock
Enemy, nearest visible > Winter's grasp
Enemy, nearest visible > Lightning

Zevran:
Self, Any > Stealth
Self, attacked by melee > Dirty fighting
Enemy, elite or superior > Mark of death
Enemy, elite or superior > Cripple
Enemy, using melee > Riposte
Enemy, nearest visible > Deadly Strike

How can i improve them? And if a webpage that lists all the best tactics possible for different talents exists, can you direct me to it?

Feel free to correct me for my english errors, im not used to speak english!
Oh and i know im complicating my task with all these rules of roleplay.

 

[Darklord]

I was wonder, how did this do sales wise? Have we got any info on it yet? I'd hate to see it go poorly. I'd be happy playing a new Dragon Age any day(and until then I'll probably keep replaying this).

Also...

He looks just like that kid.:lol

 

[Fredescu]

I was wonder, how did this do sales wise?

It didn't make the December Top 20, so I don't think it did as well as ME unfortunately. On the other hand, they made $1 million from DLC fairly quickly, and I'm blown away that we're getting a proper expansion in a couple of months. I think we'll get info once EA release their full financials.

That kid thing is pretty funny

 

[slyght]

How can i improve them?

Well, for the tank I always add a slot for taunt if anyone of the party (not the tank itself) is being attacked. This helps a lot in keeping enemies focus on the tank only.

What I'm missing myself is a way to tell my healer he/she should cast a group heal or mass rejuvenation. Isn't there any trigger like "x party members have health below y%"?.

 

[cleveridea]

I was wonder, how did this do sales wise? Have we got any info on it yet? I'd hate to see it go poorly.

NPD representative Anita Frazier clarified for Joystiq the performance of last year's new IPs in terms of actual unit sales. As you might have guessed, DJ Hero wasn't quite #1 in that category, but managed a respectable 789,000 units in US sales. Still, it was soundly outsold by other new IPs, including Borderlands and Dragon Age: Origins, which sold 1.11 million and 1.14 million units, respectively. Besting them all, however, was EA Sports Active, which amassed 1.2 million units sold.

so...pretty good I think, given that NPD tracks only US and console versions so PC edition not counted same with DLC

 

[Azwethinkweiz]

Quick question about the final battle:

Spoiler

I chose to give morrigan a child so that it can take the essence of the arch demon. Does she need to be in my party when I fight the arch demon or can I leave her behind at the gate? I figure she'll need to be at the actual fight in order for the baby to save the wardens, but it's not really communicated whether it's necessary or not.

 

[ElurI]

I didn't have her in my party,

Spoiler

but I made sure to have that ring on when I beat the archdemon and I survived.

 

[Sriffat]

Spoiler

Oh man I went for the Good king and not for Bhelen. Now I just read Bhelen has a better ending and does better for the City than Harrowmont. Now I am pissed.....

 

[Gowans]

Fighting this bitch dwarf and the golems is so tough!

 

[JumpJeff84]

I played DA:O for about 10 hours on PS3, then got fed up. Jsut couldn't get into the combat.

Last night I ended up in a store and bought the PC version on a total whim. This is something I never do, as I'm a console gamer through and through.

I checked the back of the box, and it looked pretty dodgy in terms of how it would run on my Sony Vaio laptop, or even if it would run at all. Got it home, installed it, and fuck me, it actually booted up. Didn’t even have to download a patch. It’s funny- the game requires a minimum 4.0 spec PC (GFW rating), and it only rated mine as 3.7 but whatever- it plays. I’m playing at 600x800, the graphics are on low detail but still, it looks fine to me. Probably comparable to how it looked on the PS3- maybe a tiny bit worse. At any rate, I’m cool with it. As long as I never see it running on a high-powered PC I should be happy with it.

So, I remade my lady mage and started a new game. Played for 3 hours; just long enough to finish my origin story, which was the same as it was on PS3 obviously. And what can I say- holy shit, this is like a completely different game. Frame rate and load times are better than on the PS3, even with my meagre laptop, which is great. So much more fun to play.

And the battle system? Good god, it’s like a completely different game. I’m playing on Normal difficulty, and I’m pausing, cueing up my commands, tactfully moving characters, casting buffs- you name it. Basically everything that was such a pain in the ass to me on the PS3. I love the combat- I totally get it now. So excited to play the shit out of this, assuming that the performance keeps up. Having the hot bar on the bottom makes all the difference, and I love being able to zoom in and out so organically. I’m constantly changing my viewpoint both in combat and when I’m exploring- great stuff.

Honestly, I'm not trying to troll the console versions here- for the most part I think they did a pretty good job. I just found that when I was playing on the console I could never bring myself to do the combat properly- I'd end up dying all the time on normal difficulty. As a result I set it to easy and just mashed my way through, which ended up boring.

I know other folks are enjoying the combat on console, so it's probably just me. To those folks playing on console: is there a way to pause combat and then enter commands for all of your characters before unpausing? I always found that after entering commands for a character the game would unpause, then I'd have to pause again to enter commands for another character? Was I doing it wrong?

Anyway, great game.

 

[slyght]

To those folks playing on console: is there a way to pause combat and then enter commands for all of your characters before unpausing? I always found that after entering commands for a character the game would unpause, then I'd have to pause again to enter commands for another character? Was I doing it wrong?

As far as I know, there's no way to make multiple commands without unpausing. It annoys me, too but I hope for a patch.
For me the even higher disadvantages of the console versions are the missing top down view and the limited amount of spells directly accessible without the radial menu.

 

[Owzers]

If i ever get a capable pc i think i'd rebuy dragon age to play it as a tactical rpg. Right now on 360 i LOVE the game ( outside the dragon fights of course since everyone knows, except bioware, that they suck) but i mainly play it as an action rpg and hope for the npc controlled mages. The story/characters/world are all great which really helps.

 

[JumpJeff84]

If i ever get a capable pc i think i'd rebuy dragon age to play it as a tactical rpg. Right now on 360 i LOVE the game ( outside the dragon fights of course since everyone knows, except bioware, that they suck) but i mainly play it as an action rpg and hope for the npc controlled mages. The story/characters/world are all great which really helps.

yeah, I've gone from tolerating the battle system on console to loving it on PC.

And you might be surprised at what this thing will run on- just a standard Sony Vaio.

Don't exactly recall the specs of my laptop, but it's not a beast by any means.

 

[BattleMonkey]

Is it even possible to play this game without a dedicated healer? My character is a spirit healer mage and I just don't see how you could beat the game without dedicated healing with how you get swarmed in so many areas.

 

[Sriffat]

Is it best to have a romantic interest with morrigan or leliana. mind you...

Spoiler

i was pleasantly shocked at the sex at the pearl

did not expect that

 

[Borgnine]

Is it best to have a romantic interest with morrigan or leliana.

Why not both? That's what I did.

Of course they both get pissed at you for two timing them. It's not really a problem unless you talk to them, which I ALWAYS DO ACCIDENTALLY when trying to loot. It's like they put that in there on purpose, cause once the dialogue starts there's no option to get out of it, just like in real life. :lol

 

[cabottemp]

So I bought this game on release day, played it for an hour or so, just long enough to complete an origin story and get a trophy, then had to stop because of school and work and whatnot. Well, a week or so ago I had to go to the hospital and when I was released the doc said I couldn't work for about a week. I decided to lie in bed and pop this in and try to rest up, and I beat it over the course of a week. What a fantastic game, some of the most fun I've had in a while. I'm really looking forward to playing through again, and of course, the expansion pack. I've decided on finishing up the saboteur and then going back to dragon age and creating a mage. Tons of fun.

 

[hank_tree]

I know other folks are enjoying the combat on console, so it's probably just me. To those folks playing on console: is there a way to pause combat and then enter commands for all of your characters before unpausing? I always found that after entering commands for a character the game would unpause, then I'd have to pause again to enter commands for another character? Was I doing it wrong?

In the options menu you can set it so that you need to hold down the trigger to issue commands. If you have that set then as long as keep it held down you can select actions for multiple characters at once without unpausing the game.

 

[Owzers]

In the options menu you can set it so that you need to hold down the trigger to issue commands. If you have that set then as long as keep it held down you can select actions for multiple characters at once without unpausing the game.

That's really odd. I finished the game and never knew that. I changed the setting so you didnt' have to hold it down because i hate holding things down and trying to spin through options.

 

[BuckRobotron]

Just finished my primary human male mage run-through, and did the ending variant of

Spoiler

siding with Loghain, letting him do the final deed

. Started and moving quickly through a city elf female rogue bit now. Hot little number with a bit of attitude, but usually still good. For this playthrough I'm sort of playing as Alistair actually, part of the reason I basically benched/ignored him first game.

Thoroughly enjoyed the game, so chalk this up as another favorite from Bioware. And kudos to the voice cast as well. Kate Mulgrew was especially entertaining for her bit as Flemeth. Great variety with both solid American and English accents managing to work together. Funny how the dwarves seemed especially weighted with gruff American accents. Indeed, I kept Oghren on board partly for the absurdity of a gravelly Steve Blum coughing up the word "sodding" in every other sentence. :lol

I did run into many of the common glitches in the game unfortunately. Things like the Arcane Warrior and other specializations not showing up, still haven't gotten my recruiting achievement, etc. Cache clearing helped somehwat with the specializations, but Arcane Warrior was lost for good on that first playthrough.

 

[bulovski]

Is it even possible to play this game without a dedicated healer? My character is a spirit healer mage and I just don't see how you could beat the game without dedicated healing with how you get swarmed in so many areas.

Maybe possible with a ton of potions but highly improbable - especially near the end. It just got crazy. A spirit healer does make battles a lot simpler. I played the console version and the tactics made a lot of the battles upto middle game a cakewalk. End game was a different story.

 

[samus4ever]

Ugh still can't beat the archdemon. Whats the best way to defeat him? The best I got was 25% left and got pwned.

Also, if I can't beat the game, will I still be able to play Awakening when it comes out?

 

[ElurI]

Have you tried

Spoiler

using the ballistas. They can jam, but they can be fixed after they jam. Once I committed to using them it was quite easy to kill it. You can call in support guys to distract all the other darkspawn and focus on lining up a ballista. They don't work during certain times like when Arl Emon comes out or the Mage

And from what I got out of the preview for the DLC it is set after the fall of the archdemon, but I could be wrong.

 

[DarthWoo]

I see this is $35 + shipping on gogamer.com, might it be a good idea to buy it now and it'll hold me over long enough to wait for deals to appear on Mass Effect 2? Kinda wanted to get the ME2 Collector's Edition for PC, but I don't know if they'll still be distributing that by the time you can find retail versions for cheaper.

 

[Garl_Vinland]

This is the first RPG where i actually wanted to learn more about a character that's not even in the game itself:

Spoiler

prophet andraste

. I think that just shows that the backstory and setting for Dragon Age is utterly amazing. I envy people unravelling the huge world of dragon age for the first time

I played DA:O for about 10 hours on PS3, then got fed up. Jsut couldn't get into the combat.

Last night I ended up in a store and bought the PC version on a total whim. This is something I never do, as I'm a console gamer through and through.

I checked the back of the box, and it looked pretty dodgy in terms of how it would run on my Sony Vaio laptop, or even if it would run at all. Got it home, installed it, and fuck me, it actually booted up. Didn’t even have to download a patch. It’s funny- the game requires a minimum 4.0 spec PC (GFW rating), and it only rated mine as 3.7 but whatever- it plays. I’m playing at 600x800, the graphics are on low detail but still, it looks fine to me. Probably comparable to how it looked on the PS3- maybe a tiny bit worse. At any rate, I’m cool with it. As long as I never see it running on a high-powered PC I should be happy with it.

So, I remade my lady mage and started a new game. Played for 3 hours; just long enough to finish my origin story, which was the same as it was on PS3 obviously. And what can I say- holy shit, this is like a completely different game. Frame rate and load times are better than on the PS3, even with my meagre laptop, which is great. So much more fun to play.

And the battle system? Good god, it’s like a completely different game. I’m playing on Normal difficulty, and I’m pausing, cueing up my commands, tactfully moving characters, casting buffs- you name it. Basically everything that was such a pain in the ass to me on the PS3. I love the combat- I totally get it now. So excited to play the shit out of this, assuming that the performance keeps up. Having the hot bar on the bottom makes all the difference, and I love being able to zoom in and out so organically. I’m constantly changing my viewpoint both in combat and when I’m exploring- great stuff.

Honestly, I'm not trying to troll the console versions here- for the most part I think they did a pretty good job. I just found that when I was playing on the console I could never bring myself to do the combat properly- I'd end up dying all the time on normal difficulty. As a result I set it to easy and just mashed my way through, which ended up boring.

I know other folks are enjoying the combat on console, so it's probably just me. To those folks playing on console: is there a way to pause combat and then enter commands for all of your characters before unpausing? I always found that after entering commands for a character the game would unpause, then I'd have to pause again to enter commands for another character? Was I doing it wrong?

Anyway, great game.

The game is paying tribute to the old PC classics like Baldur's Gate 1/2 and Planescape Torment where the pause and turn-based strategizing is the key to combat. It'll just feel weird on the consoles. But to defend the console ports, dragon age has a pretty sophisticated party A.I. (with tons of conditions) which i think probably helps you offset the loss of control you get from the PC version. bg 1/2 and PS:T didn't have any of those party a.i. conditions (as far as i can remember). but i would imagine that the console ports are still "unnecessarily" harder either way.

 

[Cornballer]

Anyone have problems with their 360 crashing when playing this? I installed it to HDD, and I've just crashed a couple times in the last two days. I'm about 40 hours in, and it's only happened recently when there's lots of action on the screen. Just trying to figure out if my 360 is on the way out or if it's just the game having issues.